I’ll admit it.

Easter is often hard in the hospital. We hear about the hope of the resurrection, that Jesus rose victorious over the grave, that we have life because he does.

But we are in a building that exists because death still exists. Cancer still lives inside these walls. Accidents happen elsewhere and come here.

I walk the halls. I sit in rooms. Sometimes I see someone in tears, though I don’t know why And so I gently ask, “Why are you crying?”

I suppose sometimes it’s obvious, but sometimes it’s not. It’s worth asking.

And when we hear the stories, we understand that there is a gap between the resurrection of Jesus and the pain in our lives.

I’d like to suggest that for some of us, the power in the resurrection comes in ways that surprise us in our pain. Just as surprising as it was for Mary that morning.

Mary was called Mary Magdalene to distinguish her from the other Marys. She was from the small town of Magdala on the coast of the Sea of Galilee, a few miles around from Capernaum, where Jesus was based in his early ministry.

The only thing we know about her backstory is that Jesus had driven demons out of her. The other people that Jesus had done this for had experienced being out of control. One boy kept being tossed into fires. A man raged against others and himself. A young slave girl told fortunes as a slave. Others were blind or bent double. We don’t know how Mary was trapped. But Jesus had given her freedom.

Some of us have known this. That moment when everything made sense, that God worked, that faith was simple because it wasn’t faith. We were looking at Jesus. We’ve had an experience and were alive.

And she followed him, was part of the team that supported the ministry. She’s in a list of women who had their own resources, who underwrote the traveling team of Jesus.

Which means that she was part of the group that watched Jesus die.

Mary of Magdala knew what it was like to watch someone who was everything to you die.

+++

This story is from the Easter message this year. I’ll keep going this week.